Loyalty incentive program using transaction cards

ABSTRACT

A system and method provide rewards or loyalty incentives to card member customers. The system includes an enrolled card member customer database, an enrolled merchant database, a participating merchant offer database and a registered card processor. The registered card processor receives a record for charge for a purchase made with an enrolled merchant by an enrolled card member customer and uses the record of charge to determine whether the purchase qualifies for a rebate credit in accordance with a discount offer from the enrolled merchant. If the purchase qualifies for a rebate credit, the registered card processor provides the rebate credit to an account of the enrolled card member customer. The system provides a coupon-less way for merchants to provide incentive discounts to enrolled customers.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of, claims priority to and thebenefit of, U.S. Ser. No. 11/779,734 filed on Jul. 18, 2007 and entitled“LOYALTY INCENTIVE PROGRAM USING TRANSACTION CARDS.” The '734application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Appl. No. 60/831,457,filed Jul. 18, 2006. The entire disclosures of both are incorporatedherein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to systems and methods forproviding rewards or loyalty incentive programs to consumers, and moreparticularly to systems and methods for operating a loyalty incentiveprogram using transaction cards to permit consumers to receive discountswithout requiring a coupon to be redeemed.

2. Related Art

Loyalty incentive or reward programs are used as a form of highlycustomizable and targeted marketing. A loyalty program provider willattract customers who sign-up for a loyalty program. Shopping benefitssuch as discounts are offered to the customers by the provider. Theprovider then markets to merchants that the provider can bring customersto the merchant. For example, a loyalty program provider may approach amerchant, such as the clothing retailer GAP® Inc., with an offer tobring customers to the GAP® in exchange for a fee. The provider wouldthen send a solicitation (via email or regular mail) to its customersoffering, for example, a 10% discount coupon that may be redeemed at theGAP® on a particular day. The success of the solicitation can beassessed based on the number of coupons redeemed.

In such a loyalty solicitation, the merchant would pay the loyaltyprogram provider a percentage of the sales (e.g., 10%) that result fromthe solicitation. The merchant benefits from the increased sales. Theloyalty program provider benefits from the commission that it receives,and the customers benefit from the received discount.

There are several areas that could be improved in such traditionalloyalty programs. For example, such traditional programs suffer fromleakage. Leakage occurs when the merchant does not fully report salesresulting from the solicitation. Leakage results in loss revenues forthe loyalty program provider. Further, administration of couponredemption by a merchant is costly and requires training. What is neededis a system and method improving upon traditional loyalty programs.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention meets the above-identified needs by providing asystem and method for providing customers with loyalty incentives.

One embodiment of the present invention provides a method for providingloyalty incentives to a card member customer, the method having thefollowing steps: a record of charge is received for a purchase made witha participating merchant by a card member customer; the record of chargeis used to determine whether the purchase by the card member customerqualifies for a rebate credit in accordance with a discount offer fromthe participating merchant; and if the purchase qualifies for the rebatecredit, then the rebate credit is provided to an account of the cardmember customer.

In another embodiment, a method for operating a loyalty incentiveprogram includes the following steps: a list of participating merchantsis received; a list of participating card members is received; a recordof charge corresponding to a purchase by a card member customer isreceived from a merchant, and upon receipt, an account of the cardmember customer is debited by the amount of the charge, a merchantidentification contained in the record of charge is compared with thelist of participating merchants, and a card member identificationcontained in the record of charge is compared with the list ofparticipating card members. If the card member is a participating cardmember and the merchant is a participating merchant, then it isdetermined whether the record of charge qualifies for a rebate credit.If the record of charge qualities for a rebate credit, then the rebatecredit is provided to an account of the card member customer.

In another embodiment, a method includes the following steps:participation of a merchant in a loyalty incentive program is solicited;an offer from a participating merchant is received; enrollment of a cardmember customer to the loyalty incentive program is solicited; the offeris provided to an enrolled card member customer; information is receivedwhich relates to a purchase by the enrolled card member customer inaccordance with the offer from the participating merchant; an amount ofa discount in accordance with the offer is calculated; and the amount ofthe discount is provided to a transaction account provider so that anaccount of the enrolled card member customer is credited in the amountof the discount.

One embodiment of the present invention provides a system including anenrolled card member customer database having identification informationof accounts associated with card member customers enrolled in theloyalty incentive program; an enrolled merchant database havingidentification information of merchants enrolled in the loyaltyincentive program; a merchant offer database having identificationinformation of discount offers provided by the merchants enrolled in theloyalty incentive program; and a registered card processor. Theregistered card processor receives a record of charge for a purchasemade with an enrolled merchant by an enrolled card member customer anduses the record of charge to determine whether the purchase qualifiesfor a rebate credit in accordance with a discount offer from theenrolled merchant. If the purchase qualifies for a rebate credit, theregistered card processor provides the rebate credit to an account ofthe enrolled card member customer.

An advantage of the present invention is that it may be used to providecouponless discounts on purchase made by card member customers. Anotheradvantage is no leakage since an enrolled merchant does not have toprocess any coupons. In such a system, the merchant benefits fromincreased sales and elimination of the overhead required to manage acoupon program, the customer benefits from the coupon-less discount, andthe loyalty program provider benefits from sales commissions and/orloyalty program fees paid by the merchant. In one embodiment, customersmay also he charged a fee by the loyalty program provider forparticipation in the loyalty program. Further features and advantages ofthe present invention as well as the structure and operation of variousembodiments of the present invention are described in detail below withreference to the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

The features and advantages of the present invention will become moreapparent from the detailed description set forth below when taken inconjunction with the drawings in which like reference numbers indicateidentical or functionally similar elements.

FIG. 1 is a high level flow diagram of a process for providing loyaltyincentives to a card member customer in accordance with an embodiment ofthe present invention.

FIG. 2 is a high level flow diagram showing data management flow of cardmember customer information and participating merchant information fortransaction matching in the process of FIG, 1.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary output file of matched transactions withcorresponding statements of credit to a card member customer and debitto participating merchants.

FIG. 4 is a detailed high level flow diagram of the process of FIG. 1,in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention,

FIG. 5 is a high level flow diagram showing data flow of card membercustomer information and participating merchant information fortransaction matching, in accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram of a transaction matching process, inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram illustrating the processes associated withindividual steps shown in FIG. 6.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram of transaction based data flow between a thirdparty loyalty program provider and a transaction account provider, inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention,

FIG. 9 is a high level flow diagram of a process of providing loyaltyincentives to a card member customer using a transaction card issued bya third party transaction account provider.

FIG. 10 is another high level flow diagram of the process of FIG. 9,providing an exemplary credit statement of the third party transactionaccount provider, in accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention,

FIG. 11 is a diagram of a method for determining whether a returnrelates to a purchase for which a rebate credit was provided to the cardmember customer, in accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 12 is a diagram of another method for determining whether a returnwas made on a purchase in which the card member received a discountcredit, in accordance with another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram of an exemplary computer system used forimplementing the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION I. OVERVIEW

The present invention is directed to a system and method for providingloyalty incentives to a card member customer and operating a loyaltyincentive program. The present invention is now described in more detailherein in terms of an exemplary embodiment. This is for convenience onlyand is not intended to limit the application of the present invention.While specific configurations and arrangements are discussed, it shouldbe understood that this is done for illustrative purposes only. In fact,after reading the following description, it will be apparent to oneskilled in the relevant art(s) how to implement the following inventionin alternative embodiments. A person skilled in the pertinent art willrecognize that other configurations and arrangements can be used withoutdeparting from the spirit and scope of the present invention. It will beapparent to a person skilled in the pertinent art that this inventioncan also be employed in a variety of other applications.

The terms “user,” “end user,” “consumer,” “customer,” “participant,”and/or the plural form of these terms are used interchangeablythroughout herein to refer to those persons or entities capable ofaccessing, using, being affected by and/or benefiting from the tool thatthe present invention provides for the rewards program described herein.This includes both individual consumers and corporate customers such as,for example, small businesses.

Furthermore, the terms “service provider,” “business” or “merchant” maybe used interchangeably with each other and shall mean any person,entity, distributor system, software and/or hardware that is a provider,broker and/or any other entity in the distribution chain of goods orservices. For example, a service provider may be a retail store, a hotelcompany, an airline company, a travel agency, an on-line merchant or thelike.

1. Transaction Accounts and Instrument

A “transaction account” as used herein refers to an account associatedwith an open account or a closed account system (as described below).The transaction account may exist in a physical or nonphysicalembodiment. For example, a transaction account may be distributed innon-physical embodiments such as an account number, frequent-flyeraccount, telephone calling account or the like. Furthermore, a physicalembodiment of a transaction account may be distributed as a financialinstrument. The term “transaction card” is used herein to be synonymouswith the term “transaction account,” unless indicated otherwise.

A financial transaction instrument may be traditional plastictransaction cards, titanium-containing, or other metal-containing,transaction cards, clear and/or translucent transaction cards, foldableor otherwise unconventionally-sized transaction cards, radio-frequencyenabled transaction cards, or other types of transaction cards, such ascredit, charge, debit, pre-paid or stored-value cards, or any other likefinancial transaction instrument. A financial transaction instrument mayalso have electronic functionality provided by a network of electroniccircuitry that is printed or otherwise incorporated onto or within thetransaction instrument (and typically referred to as a “smart card”), orbe a fob having a transponder and an RFID reader.

2. Open Versus Closed Cards

“Open cards” are financial transaction cards that are generally acceptedat different merchants. Examples of open cards include the American:Express®, Visa®, MasterCard® and Discover® cards, which may he used atmany different retailers and other businesses. In contrast, “closedcards” are financial transaction cards that may be restricted to use ina particular store, a particular chain of stores or a collection ofaffiliated stores. One example of a closed card is a pre-paid gift cardthat may only be purchased at, and only be accepted at, a clothingretailer, such as the clothing retailer Gap®, Inc.

3. Stored Value Cards

Stored value cards are forms of transaction instruments associated withtransaction accounts, wherein the stored value cards provide cashequivalent value that may be used within an existing payment/transactioninfrastructure. Stored value cards are frequently referred to as gift,pre-paid or cash cards, in that money is deposited in the accountassociated with the card before use of the card is allowed. For example,if a customer deposits ten dollars of value into the account associatedwith the stored value card, the card may only be used for paymentstogether totaling no more than ten dollars.

4. Use of Transaction Accounts

With regard to use of a transaction account, users may communicate withservice providers in person (e.g., at the box office), telephonically,or electronically (e.g., from a user computer via the Internet). Duringthe interaction, the service provider may offer goods and/or services tothe user. The service provider may also offer the user the option ofpaying for the goods and/or services using any number of availabletransaction accounts. Furthermore, the transaction accounts may be usedby the service provider as a form of identification of the user. Theservice provider may have a computing unit implemented in the form of acomputer-server, although other implementations are possible.

In general, transaction accounts may be used for transactions betweenthe user and service provider through any suitable communication means,such as, for example, a telephone network, intranet, the global, publicInternet, a point of interaction device (e.g., a point of sale (POS)device, personal digital assistant (PDA), mobile telephone, kiosk, etc),online communications, off-line communications, wireless communications,and/or the like.

5. Account and Merchant Numbers

An “account,” “account number” or “account code,” as used herein, mayinclude any device, code, number, letter, symbol, digital certificate,smart chip, digital signal, analog signal, biometric or otheridentifier/indicia suitably configured to allow a consumer to access,interact with or communicate with a financial transaction system. Theaccount number may optionally be located on or associated with anyfinancial transaction instrument (e.g., rewards, charge, credit, debit,prepaid, telephone, embossed, smart, magnetic stripe, bar code,transponder or radio frequency card),

The account number may be distributed and stored in any form of plastic,electronic, magnetic, radio frequency (RF), wireless, audio and/oroptical device capable of transmitting or downloading data from itselfto a second device. A customer account number may be, for example, asixteen-digit credit card number. Each credit card issuer has its ownnumbering system, such as the fifteen-digit numbering system used byAmerican Express Company of New York, N.Y., Each issuer's credit cardnumbers comply with that company's standardized format such that anissuer using a sixteen-digit format will generally use four spaced setsof numbers in the form of:

-   -   N₁N₂N₃N₄ N₅N₆N₇N₈ N₉N₁₀N₁₁N₁₂ N₁₃N₁₄N₁₅N₁₆

The first five to seven digits are reserved for processing purposes andidentify the issuing institution, card type, eta In this example, thelast (sixteenth) digit is typically used as a sum check for thesixteen-digit number. The intermediary eight-to-ten digits are used touniquely identify the customer, card holder or card member.

A merchant account number may be, for example, any number oralpha-numeric characters that identifies a particular merchant forpurposes of card acceptance, account reconciliation, reporting and thelike.

6. RFID and Transmission of Magnetic Stripe Data

It should be noted that the transfer of information in accordance withthe present invention may be done in a format recognizable by a merchantsystem or account issuer. In that regard, by way of example, theinformation may be transmitted from an RFID device to an MD reader, orfrom the RFID reader to the merchant system in magnetic stripe ormulti-track magnetic stripe format.

Because of the proliferation of devices using magnetic stripe format,the standards for coding information in magnetic stripe format werestandardized by the International Organization for Standardization inISO/IEC 7811-n (characteristics for identification cards) which areincorporated herein by reference. The ISOIEC 7811 standards specify theconditions the conformance, physical characteristics for the card(warpage and surface distortions) and the magnetic stripe area(location, height and surface profile, roughness, adhesion, wear andresistance to chemicals), the signal amplitude performanceCharacteristics of the magnetic stripe, the encoding specificationincluding technique (MFM), angle of recording, bit density, fluxtransition spacing variation and signal amplitude, the data structureincluding track format, use of error correction techniques, user datacapacity for ID-1, ID-2 and ID-3 size cards, and decoding techniques,and the location of encoded tracks.

Typically, magnetic stripe information is formatted in three tracks.Certain industry information must be maintained on certain portions ofthe tracks, while other portions of the tracks may have open datafields. The contents of each track and the formatting of the informationprovided to each track is controlled by the ISO/IEC 7811 standard. Forexample, the information must typically be encoded in binary. Track 1 isusually encoded with user information (i.e., name) in alphanumericformat. Track 2 is typically comprised of discretionary andnondiscretionary data fields. In one example, the nondiscretionary fieldmay comprise 19 characters and the discretionary field may comprise 13characters. Track 3 is typically reserved for financial transactions andincludes enciphered versions of the user's personal identificationnumber, country code, current units amount authorized per cycle,subsidiary accounts, and restrictions.

As such, where information is provided in accordance with the presentinvention, it may be provided in magnetic stripe track format. Forexample, the counter values, authentication tags and encryptedidentifiers may be forwarded encoded in all or a portion of a datastream representing data encoded in, for example, track 2 or track 3format.

Persons skilled in the relevant arts will understand the breadth of theterms used herein and that the exemplary descriptions provided are notintended to be limiting of the generally understood meanings attributedto the foregoing terms.

It is noted that references in the specification to “one embodiment”,“an embodiment”, “an example embodiment”, etc., indicate that theembodiment described may include a particular feature, structure, orcharacteristic, but every embodiment may not necessarily include theparticular feature, structure, or characteristic. Moreover, such phrasesare not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Further, when aparticular feature, structure, or characteristic is described inconnection with an embodiment, it would be within the knowledge of oneskilled in the art to effect such feature, structure, or characteristicin connection with other embodiments whether or not explicitlydescribed.

II. SYSTEM AND PROCESS

The invention is now described with reference to the figures. Referringfirst to FIG. 1, a high level flow diagram illustrates operation of anembodiment of the present invention. A transaction account provider(TAP) (such as American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc.,of New York, N.Y.) operates a registered card platform 130 to implementa reward or incentive program (sometimes referred to herein a registeredcard program), which does not require paper coupons for fulfillment ofmerchant offers to card members. Registered card platform 130 providesthe capability to match merchant (SE or “service establishment”) offersand card member (CM) customer information with card transactions for acard member customer's purchases or returns at a merchant participatingin the registered card program. As a result of such matching capability,registered card platform 130 allows TAP to fulfill a merchant's discountoffer applicable to card member customer's purchase by providing arebate credit in accordance with the discount offer on the card membercustomer's transaction account statement. If a return is made on apurchase for which a rebate credit was previously provided, registeredcard platform 130 also allows the TAP to debit the card member customerthe amount of the rebate credit and credit the same back to themerchant.

TAP can collaborate with a loyalty program provider to produce thereward or incentive program. While, as used herein, “loyalty programprovider” (LPP) refers to an external, third-party provider of marketingpackages that may be provided to CMs in accordance with the presentinvention, TAP may internally administer loyalty programs, such asrestaurant or travel marketing program. Therefore, to distinguish fromprograms provided by an LPP, TAPs internal loyalty programs will bereferred to herein as a “TAP marketing program” or simply a “TAPprogram.” In the figures, the service mark “TailorMade” is used to referto an example loyalty program offered by an LPP. Accordingly, althoughembodiments of the present invention will be described herein in theenvironment of such collaboration between a TAP and an LPP, one of skillin the pertinent art(s) will recognize that a registered card programcan be implemented with or without a loyalty program provider or othertypes of providers without departing from the spirit and scope of thepresent invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, in step 1, a merchant 102 enrolls and submits adiscount offer to a loyalty program or other marketing program. Theseoffers are compiled in an offer database 132. In step 2, a card membercustomer (CM) 104 registers their transaction account managed by TAP,such that CM's account is “registered” to the registered card program,thereby permitting the registered CM to receive coupon-less discounts inthe form of rebate credits (via CM's account statement). Informationrelating to CM's now registered card is compiled in enrollee database134. When CM shops and makes purchases (or returns) at a merchant usingtheir financial transaction card, TAP will receive a record of charge(ROC) for the transaction, which may be stored in a card transactiondatabase 136. The ROC may be any information that can be used toidentify a card transaction. In step 3, matching is performed byregistered card platform 130. In the ease of a CM purchase, the CM'sstatement is credited and the merchant's account is debited inaccordance with the merchant's offer, as illustrated in step 140.Further description of providing a credit to the CM and a debit to themerchant in step 140 is described below with reference to FIG. 3.

FIG. 2 provides another high level flow diagram illustrating the stepsof solicitation 110 and enrollment 120 relative to transaction matching130 (performed by the registered card platform), in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention, Solicitation 110 of a CM mayinclude a targeted invitation, such as by e-mail, from loyalty programprovider(s) or TAP, or by simply making available to a CM a link onTAP's website prompting the CM to enroll in TAP's registered cardprogram. During enrollment 120, the CM opts to register their cardinformation to enable registered card platform 130 to perform futurematching of transactions. Box 122 sets forth exemplary fields ofinformation stored by TAP for each enrolled CM. CM information is storedin database 134 (represented here as an arrow 134), and the informationis provided to a matching transaction processor 138 of registered cardplatform 130. Matching processor 138 is shown and described in theexample embodiments presented using the term “registered card engine”(RCE). As shown, in FIG. 2, RCE 138 is provided with merchanttransaction information from participating merchants (i.e., a daily,“business as usual” (BAU) transaction file). This transactioninformation may be stored in transaction database 136 (shown here as anarrow 136). RCE 138 also receives participating merchant offers 132(shown in FIG. 1) and matches them with transactions 136 made byregistered CMs (i.e., via information from enrollee database 134).Matched transactions are provided in an output file 142.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary output file and credit and debitstatement for the CM and the merchant, in accordance with step 140 ofFIG. 1. Output file 142 from RCE 138 (as shown in FIG. 2) includes anitemization of a discount amount (i.e., incentive payment) to CM for apurchase made (i.e., ROC) at a participating merchant in which adiscount offer was applicable. In this embodiment, upon enrollment inthe registered card program, the registered accounts of the CM receive aregistration identification (i.e., “registered #”), which is alsoincluded in output file 142. In this embodiment, output file 142includes marketing programs administered by TAP and marketing programsadministered by a loyalty program provider. One of skill in thepertinent art(s) will recognize that output file 142 may be configuredin any number of ways and include less or more information representedin FIG. 3 without departing from the spirit and scope of the presentinvention. For example, a separate output file may be provided for eachLPP or TAP program, and for each loyalty program offered by the sameLPP. Further, the transaction and discount information reflected thereinmay be provided collectively or separately for downstream processing ofa CM credit statement 144 and a merchant debit statement 146,

As shown in FIG. 3, output file 142 is processed by TAP to provide lineitem rebate credits on CM statement 144 for each purchase subject to adiscount offer available pursuant to a marketing program. For example,CM statement 144 includes a TailorMade rebate credit of $71, for anoriginal charge amount of $355 at participating merchant, Acme Clothing.Similarly, a credit of $37 under TAP's restaurant marketing program isprovided for an original charge amount of $370 at participatingmerchant, Acme Food. Merchant debit statement 146 includes line itemdebits in accordance with CM's rebate credits also as line items foreach marketing program. The debit for the merchant may be equal orunequal to the rebate credit to CM. For example, for Acme Clothing, themerchant debit of $71 is equal to CM credit of $71, whereas the debitfor Acme Food is $74, corresponding to the sum of the rebate credit toCM and a commission or service fee of 10% of the original charge amountimposed by TAP for performing the services described herein. Althoughnot shown here, a similar commission may be imposed by LPP and/or TAP onAcme Clothing's account and incorporated as part of a line item debit onits statement. Alternatively, such commission may be a separate lineitem from the line item for the merchant's debit for CM's rebate credit.

FIG. 4 is a detailed high level block diagram of the process of FIG. 1,showing processes for registration of a CM, calculation of a rebatecredit to the CM (or a negative discount amount in case of a return),and downstream settlement with the CM and the merchant relating to therebate credit (or negative discount amount), in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention. The CM registers with TAP toreceive couponless discounts for purchases drawn on their transactioncard/account. Generally, the registration process begins withsolicitation 110 of the CM, followed by enrollment 120 of one or moretransaction cards held by the CM. Description of exemplary embodimentsof process for solicitation 110 and enrollment 120 will be providedfurther below. In order to enroll, each transaction card andcorresponding customer information undergoes a validation process 410 todetermine whether the CM's card is eligible for participation in TAP'sregistered card program. This registered card program may be madeavailable to not only CMs holding transaction cards issued by TAP, butalso to CMs holding cards issued by third party transaction accountproviders in a brand network. Third party transaction account providersare referred to herein collectively as Global Network Services (GNS).For example, “American Express” branded cards are available from bothAmerican Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc (referred toherein as proprietary cards, or “Prop cards”) as well as from otherissuers (referred to herein as “GNS cards”), such as Citibank, N.A. ofNew York, N.Y. Accordingly, validation process 410 may includevalidation of proprietary cards and GNS cards. For proprietary cards,customer information is validated by TAP's card authorization system(CAS) 412, and for GNS cards, CM information is validated by GNS's cardauthorization system 414.

The CM may be provided the option to enroll more than one card and linkeach second and additional card to a primary enrolled card, which isillustrated in FIG. 4 as linking 416. Linking 416 provides thecapability to assign a single registration identification to the CM andprovides the CM the flexibility to make a purchase on any of the linkedcards, with discount payments appearing on the CM's statement for theprimary card. The linked cards may be all Prop cards, all GNS cards, ora mixture of Prop and GNS cards. Further, the linked cards assigned to asingle registration identification may be corporate cards, personalcards, or a mixture thereof The registration process may also includethe capability of batch enrollment 420 of a plurality of cards of one ormore CMs in a single instance information relating to enrolled CMs arestored in enrollee database 134. Information relating to linking 416 ofa plurality of cards to the CM is also contained therein. Informationfrom the enrollee database 134 may then be provided to RCE 138, asdescribed above with reference to FIG. 2.

In the embodiment of FIG. 4, information on participating merchants andtheir offers are divided into separate databases, i.e., an offerdatabase 452 and a merchant database 454, and provided to RCE 138. Asdescribed above, TAP may collaborate with a loyalty program provider(LPP) 460 to deliver loyalty incentives to the CM in the form ofcoupon-less discounts. Accordingly, offer database 452 and merchantdatabase 454 may be populated by TAP and/or LPP, with offers andmerchants associated with TAP's marketing programs and LPI's marketingprograms, respectively. TAP may screen merchants participating in LPP'smarketing programs prior to accepting and storing them in merchantdatabase 454. TAP's program administrator (not shown) may uploadmerchants and offers to the respective databases along with otherinformation associating merchants and offers with one or more marketingprograms.

For marketing programs administered by TAP, registered card engine 138may include its own calculation of discount 432 for purchases made byregistered CMs with merchants participating in TAP's marketing program.Further, LPP 460 may be responsible for calculation of discount 462 forpurchases made at merchants participating in marketing programsadministered by LPP 460. A merchant may be a participating merchant fora plurality of externally administered and/or internally administeredmarketing programs. Therefore, these offer and merchant databases mayinclude a field identifying each offer and merchant to one or moremarketing programs, as further described below with reference to FIG. 5.

Another input to RCE 138 are merchant ROCs 436, which may be compiled asa daily transaction file and stored in transaction database 136 (shownin FIGS. 1 and 2). RCE 138 performs transaction matching of merchantROCs 436 with enrolled CM information from enrollee database 134 andparticipating merchant and offer information from respective databases454 and 452. Further detail regarding this matching will be describedbelow with reference to FIGS. 5 through 7. Matched transactions relatingto loyalty programs administered by loyalty program provider 460 areprovided as an output file 444 to LPP 460 for discount calculation 462,whereby LPP 460 returns an output file (represented here as arrow 442),which includes the discount amount, or rebate credit, similar to theincentive payment field in output file 142 described above withreference to FIG. 3. This process of discount calculation by LPP 460 andexchange of information thereof with RCE 138 is discussed below withreference to FIG. 8.

A problem to be overcome in implementing a loyalty incentive program asdescribed herein is how to deal with returns. For example, assume a cardmember makes a purchase for $100 and receives a 10% discount (alsocalled a rebate or incentive) on his or her account. If the card memberthen returns the purchased goods to the merchant, it is desirable to beable to ascertain whether the purchase involved an incentive so that areturn credit can be made in the appropriate amount. The presentinvention solves this problem and provides a mechanism for dealing withreturns. In the embodiment of FIG. 4, RCE 138 has the capability toprocess returns 456 on purchases for which a registered CM may have beenprovided a rebate credit pursuant to a marketing program. If a rebatecredit had been previously provided, then processing of returns 456includes providing a credit to the merchant for the earlier debitedamount of the rebate credit provided to the CM and providing acorresponding debit to the CM of the earlier rebate credit. Processingof returns is similar to the transaction processing of purchases and isdescribed in greater detail below with reference to FIGS. 6 and 7.Accordingly, output file 444 from RCE 438 may include returntransactions, whereby loyalty program provider 460 calculates a negativediscount, or a discount reversal amount, 464 for each eligible return.Eligible returns may be identified based on a stock keeping unit (SKU)associated with the purchase or based on the date of the purchase andthe amount of the purchase (i.e., “backtrack discounts”). Logicassociated with matching prior purchases with returns by means otherthan SKUs is described in further detail with reference to FIGS. 11 and12.

RCE 138 has the capability to convert the discount amount to anequivalent of membership reward points which may be redeemable inaccordance with membership rewards program. Typically, a membershiprewards program offers goods or travel packages in exchange formembership reward points. Moreover, the discount amount may be acombination of a monetary credit and an equivalent of reward points. Toimplement such conversions, as well as to support service feecalculation, etc. RCE 138 may include a configuration table 434.Configuration table 434 may include fields for each marketing programand corresponding information for converting the calculated discount(i.e., the rebate credit) between a monetary credit and/or anequivalence in membership rewards points (shown as “CM (%, $, Pts)”),Further, since a discount offer may be represented in units of monetaryamount off or percent off a purchase price, or in terms of membershiprewards points, then for internally calculated discounts 432, RCE usesconfiguration table 434 to match program, merchant, and conversion terms(shown as “SE (%, $)”) to convert the offer terms to the desired unitsfor discount calculation. Configuration table 434 may also have a fieldfor TAP's service fees for each program and participating merchants, andservice fees may be in units such percent of purchase or monetary amount(shown as “TAP (%, $)”). Further, since a merchant may be submitting thesame offer for more than one marketing program, configuration tableincludes a “priority” field that is used to identify repeated offers andensure that the CM receives only a single rebate credit on a purchasethat is eligible to receive a discount pursuant to multiple marketingprograms.

The calculated discount (or discount reversal, if relating to a return)is provided to TAP settlement systems 470 for transactions on Propregistered cards, or to GNS settlement systems 480 for transactions onGNS registered cards. An AR system of TAP settlement systems 470processes the discount amount and provides the rebate credit (as amonetary credit or an equivalence in reward points, or both) on CM'scredit statement. If the rebate credit includes membership rewardpoints, then information relating the rebate credit is also provided tomembership rewards 472 for appropriate record keeping for that CM, APsystems of TAP settlement systems 470 processes the merchant debit inaccordance with CM's rebate credit, as well as any service fee chargedby TAP for providing the services described herein. Further detailregarding processing of matched transactions via TAP settlement systemsis described below with reference to FIG. 8, GNS settlement systems 480includes US, submissions 482, global clearing and settlement 484, andone or more issuers 486. Global clearing and settlement 484 may beconsidered a repository for RCE 138s matched transactions associatedwith GNS cards so as to permit each GINS issuer 486 to retrieve theirrespective GNS card transaction information, including information ofthe discount and any service fees charged by TAP. GNS issuers 486 maythen use this information to provide a rebate credit to CMs accountsmanaged by issuers 486 and to provide a debit to participating merchantsin a similar manner as described above with reference to FIG. 2. Furtherdetails regarding application of the registered card program to GNSregistered cards is described below with reference to FIGS. 9 and 10.

RCE 138 may further have the capability to provide TAP with reporting490, which may include a marketing analysis or monitoring of the successof various marketing programs and information relating to card memberparticipation therein. Reporting 490 thereby permits TAP to target CMsand deliver merchant offers that are desirable to its registered CMsand/or merchants.

Cancellations 440 of registered accounts by enrolled CMs arecommunicated to loyalty program provider 460 as well as to enrollment120 so as to maintain enrollee database 134 with up-to-date enrolled CMinformation. Cancellations 440 may arise, for example, from a CMreporting a lost or stolen card or a CM requesting TAP to deregister oneor more of its registered cards from the registered card program. It isan advantage of the invention that enrollee database 134 may be providedwith timely and consistent updates to reflect lost and stolen cards.Cancellations 440 may also include deregistration of a CM from one ormore particular marketing programs administered by TAP or LPP 460.

Further description will now be provided with respect to solicitation110 and enrollment 120. As noted above with reference to FIG. 2, CM maybe solicited to join an incentive program offered by TAP via an emailinvitation from LPP 460. In this instance, a CM may receive asolicitation email providing a link to a loyalty program's websitelanding page, whereby the CM may begin an enrollment process. Theenrollment may include, for example, the steps of agreeing to theincentive program's terms and conditions, setting up a username andpassword and selecting marketing preferences, etc. Moreover, such anincentive program website may be hosted by LPP 460 and branded by TAP.As such, the enrollment process may further include providing TAP withthe CM's email address, such as when the card member clicks on the linkof the solicitation email to start the enrollment process. TAP may useCM's email address to validate the CM prior to enrollment 120 viavalidation process 410. Further, the incentive program's website mayprovide registered CMs with a customized home page where they may bepresented with personalized offers (such as those identified based ontheir selected marketing preferences), as well as being able to engagein online shopping of goods and services offered by merchantsparticipating in the particular marketing program(s) in which the cardmember enrolls. If a CM receives an email solicitation but is alreadyenrolled in TAP's registered card program, then by clicking on the linkprovided in the solicitation email, the already enrolled CM may beprompted to log in to their customized homepage. As noted above, a CMmay be solicited indirectly simply by being provided with access to awebsite link to the enrollment webpage and/or TAN enrollment webpage forthe registered card program. Further, enrollment in TAP's registeredcard program via a TAP-hosted website link may allow for enrollment inTAP's marketing programs as well as a marketing program offered incollaboration with one or more loyalty program providers,

Solicitation 110 may further include a pre-solicitation process prior tosending a solicitation email to a targeted GM. The pre-solicitationprocess may involve determining which CMs should be targeted and whichoffer clusters and particular marketing programs the CM may be eligibleto participate in pursuant to the registered card program. Accordingly.TAP may collaborate with LPP 460 to identify appropriate CMs for emailsolicitation based on TAP's data on a CM's spending preferences and theLPP's clusters of merchant offers. These identified, targeted CMs maythen reviewed so as to exclude solicitation of any targeted CMS havingopted out of receiving direct marketing materials from TAP or LPP 460.TAP then provides LPP 460 with a marketing list of targeted CMs andassociated identifying information (such as salutation, name, gender,and zip code). The marketing list may further be provided to LPP 460with a given effective period during which solicitation emails may besent, since the list should be updated periodically to exclude CMs fromthe list that have since opted out of receiving marketing materials.Upon receipt of the marketing list from TAP, loyalty program providersends out email invitations to the targeted CMs.

Enrollment 120 may provide an option to the CM to participate in theregistered card program as a preferred enrollee. For example, duringenrollment a card member may choose to be eligible for “premium” offersin exchange for paying an enrollment fee. Alternatively, the CM may wishto forego payment of any enrollment fee and be eligible for “everyday”offers. Preferred (i.e., premium) customers may also be eligible foreveryday offers. TAP's registered card program may therefore offer tiersof offer packages corresponding to the “premium” and “everyday” tiers ofenrolled card members. Accordingly, RCE 138, during transactionmatching, may consider whether an enrolled CM is registered as a premiumcard member or an everyday card member so as to identify CM purchasesthat qualify for a premium offer and/or an everyday offer.

An embodiment of the present invention in Which TAP collaborates withloyalty program provider 460 will now be described in greater detailwith reference to FIGS. 5 through 8. FIG. 5 illustratestransaction-based data flow between databases at TAP during transactionmatching by RCE 138. As shown, CM enrollee database 134 may include suchdata as a CM's registration identification (RC # ID) for one or moreregistered transaction cards linked together in accordance with linkingstep 416, described above; a list of account numbers for these linkedcards; indication of Whether the CM is a premium card member; andwhether the CM and/or their registered transaction card(s) are active orcanceled pursuant to cancellations 440 (shown in FIG. 4). A secondenrollee database (i.e., database identified as “LPP #2”) and otheradditional enrollee databases may he provided for enrollees of eachdistinct loyalty program or program provider. Alternatively, a singleenrollee database 134 may be provided for all enrollees of theregistered card program, with another data field provided whichidentifies the one or more loyalty program providers the CM isassociated with. Likewise, separate merchant database may be providedfor each loyalty program or program provider, or a single database maybe provided with a data field identifying the merchant with theprogram(s) or provider(s). Merchant database 454 may include a merchantID, its SE #, as well as whether the merchant is actively or inactivelyenrolled in the registered card program,

Merchant offer database 452 may include an offer ID, a correspondingmerchant ID, a start and end date for the particular offer, adescription, and whether the offer is a premium offer, as describedabove. Since TAP and LPP may each administer marketing programs, andsince there may he multiple loyalty program providers, merchant offerdatabase 452 may also include a field identifying each TAP or LPPmarketing program to which the offer belongs. FIG. 5 also showsexemplary data contained in output file 444 provided to the loyaltyprogram provider(s) for discount calculation (or discount reversalcalculation, in the ease of return), as described above with referenceto FIG. 4. In this figure, “Tx” represents the term “transaction.” Asshown, output file 444 includes: transaction ID, transaction date,merchant ID and offer ID, card member's registration identification(RC#), transaction amount, as well as whether the transaction type is acredit (return) or a debit (purchase).

In this embodiment, output file 444 includes CM's RC# as a substitutefor the CM's actual transaction account number. Output file 444 isprovided to LPP for discount calculation, and the level of securityassociated with LPP's network may prohibit allowing LPP using the actualaccount number as a means to identify the transaction for discountcalculation. However, it should be understood that for internallycalculated discounts 432 (described in FIG. 4) or in instance wheresecure networks exists with the loyalty program provider(s), then outputfile may contain the particular transaction account number associatedwith the transaction. As such, the discount calculated by LPP may bedirectly matched with the card number and may also be provided on thestatement for a secondary card, rather than appearing on the statementof the primary card, which may occur when several linked cards areassociated with CM's registration identification (RC#).

FIGS. 6 and 7 show in greater detail the process of transaction matchingby RCE 138 when a registered CM shops at a participating merchant. FIG.8 shows in detail an embodiment of a process for calculation (via LPP)of CM discount credits and discount reversal debits and their subsequentprocessing so as to appear on CM and merchant statements. The processesof FIGS. 6 through 8 are shown to incorporate both CM purchases andtheir returns. Accordingly, the output file provided to LPP and an inputfile from LPP to TAP (as shown and later described in step 814 in FIG.8), as well as creation of a file of merchant credit-debit and cardmember credit/debit (as shown in step 822 of FIG. 8), are described toinclude information relating to both purchases and returns. It should beunderstood, however, that individual files at the noted steps may beprovided, one for processing of discounts for purchases and another forprocessing discount reversals for returns, without departing from thespirit and scope of the present invention. Further description ofmethodologies for identifying whether a return is on a purchase forwhich a CM received a discount will be described with reference to FIGS.11 and 12.

FIG. 6 shows steps in a process from the point when the card membermakes a purchase or return at a particular participating merchant towhen an output file is provided to an LPP for discount calculation (ordiscount reversal calculations). In step 610, TAP receives daily ROCsfrom merchants via its financial capture system (FinCap). In step 620,TAP creates a consolidated daily ROC file of all merchants associatedwith TAP. As part of the consolidation, TAP may monitor ROC submissionsfor return ROCs, i.e., ROCs having a negative amount for the transactionamount, and/or for which the transaction type is identified as a credit,whereby the transaction may be subject to additional processing todetermine whether a negative discount (i.e., discount reversal) is dueprior to including the transaction on the output file provided to theLPP for discount reversal calculation. In step 640, TAP receives thelist of participating merchants and offers from LPP. Participatingmerchants and offers are stored in merchant database 454 and merchantoffer database 452, respectively. At step 650, merchants are matched tooffers, and at step 660, ROCs are extracted for only those participatingmerchants that have unexpired offers. Also extracted are credit ROCs(i.e., ROCs for returns).

Once TAP identifies credit ROCs from participating merchants, TAP maycompare them to transaction debits stored in transaction database 136(see FIG. 8) over a given time period (e.g., the last 60 days, or thelast 90 days) to determine whether there exists a debit ROC with thesame merchant as the credit ROC, for the same registered card. If found,TAP further cheeks to see if the previous transaction was eligible for arebate credit and the amount of the rebate credit that was provided tothe CM. If the previous transaction is eligible for a rebate credit,then a debit corresponding to the amount of the rebate credit in full(corresponding to full returns) or in part (corresponding to partialreturns) is charged to the card member. These debits thereby adjust thenet return credit to equal the original purchase price less the rebatecredit. The merchant is reimbursed for the amount of the debited rebatecredit, and the merchant's reimbursement appears as a credit on themerchant's account. The determination of the discount reversal amount(i.e., amount of the debited rebate credit) is preferably based on theCM's rebated credit on the original purchase rather than the debitreceived by the merchant, since the merchant's previous debit for theCM's rebate credit may include an associated service fee imposed by TAPand/or LPP. As noted above, in one embodiment, stock keeping units(SKI's) of purchased goods/services are used to match purchases withreturns and determine the discount reversal amount. In anotherembodiment, certain assumptions are made in accordance with a returnlogic policy to do the matching. Exemplary return logic policy isdescribed below with reference to FIGS. 11 and 12.

At step 670, CM information in enrollee database 134 is used to matchregistered CMs with ROCs extracted in step 660, and each matchedtransactions is provided with a transaction In step 680, output file 444is created of transactions matched in step 670. At step 690, output file444 is provided to loyalty program provider for discount/discountreversal calculation.

FIG. 7 shows in greater detail the matching processes of steps 650 and670 and the process of extraction step 660 of FIG. 6, in accordance toan embodiment of the present invention. Step 650, for the matching ofmerchants to offers, may include steps 652, 654, 656 and 658. In step652, the list of merchants from merchant database 454 is compared withthe list of offers in merchant offer database 452. In step 654, offersare checked to be either premium or everyday offers. In step 656, offersare selected for inclusion in a master file in step 658 if the offersare currently in effect as determined by the offer start and end dates,and in step 658, a master file is created which includes the merchantSE#, the offer ID, the offer end date, and the oiler type (premium oreveryday). Extraction step 660 receives the ROC extraction file fromstep 630 (see FIG. 6) as well as the master file of step 658. In thisembodiment, extraction step 660 includes steps 662, 664, 666 and 668. Instep 662, merchant SE#s are compared to the ROC extract file of step 660and master file of step 658, and in step 654, ROCs for merchantsparticipating in TAP's registered card program are selected. Of theselected ROCs for participating merchants, the ROCs are extracted if (instep 666) the transaction date is less than the offer end date reflectedin the master file, or if (in step 668) the ROC is a credit ROC. Theseextracted ROCs are an input to matching step 670 that includes steps672, 674, 676 and 678. In step 672, CM account card numbers from theextracted ROC file are matched with the registered accounts stored inenrollee database 134. In step 674, those ROCs corresponding to theregistered accounts of CMs are selected. If the registered CM is apremium CM then at step 676, all ROCs are extracted for the CM;otherwise, at step 678 only ROCs that apply to everyday offers areextracted for the CM. These extracted ROCs are provided to step 680 ofFIG. 6 for creation of output file 444.

As shown in FIG. 8, the LPP receives output file 444 from TAP at step810. In step 812, the LPP calculates the discount or negative discount(i.e., discount reversal) amount for each purchase and returntransaction, respectively, in step 814, a file including a discount ordiscount reversal calculation (such as file 442 provided to RCE 138,described above in FIG. 4) is provided to TAP. TAP uses this file atstep 820 to update its transaction database with discount amounts ornegative discount amounts, whereby the original ROC transaction ismatched with these discounts or negative discounts. At step 822. TAPcreates a file of CM credits and corresponding merchant debits fordiscounts associated with a purchase. Further, TAP may include CM debitsand merchant credits for negative discounts associated with returns. Instep 824, TAP's SPP (shopping portal processor) platform is used tocreate a FinCap file which is provided to FinCap, and in step 826,FinCap processes CM discounts (i.e., rebate credits) and CM discountreversals. In particular, as described above in FIG. 4, RCE 138 providesTAP's AP (accounts payable) system with information on merchant debitsand credits for processing at step 828 and provides TAP's AR (accountsreceivable) system with information on card member debits and creditsfor processing at step 830. Pursuant to step 828, a merchant's accountis debited for the CM's rebated credit, may be further debited a servicefee, and is credited a CM's discount reversal amount in the case of aneligible return. Pursuant to step 840, a CM's account (or monthlystatement) shall show a credited amount in accordance with any rebatecredit and a debited amount in accordance with any discount reversalarising from an eligible return.

Methodologies unique to processing of card member returns by means of areturn logic policy in accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention are now described with reference to FIGS. 11 and 12. In thesefigures “TM tx” represents CM transactions which were eligible for arebate credit in accordance with the TailorMade^(SM) registered cardprogram described herein. FIG. 11 provides examples of actions taken inresponse to returns. For example, in line 1 of FIG. 11, a $1,000 returnis made on Sep. 1, 2006. In response to this return, TAP will take noaction with respect to debiting any rebate credit, because there were notransactions made in the prior 60 days to correspond to the $1,000return. In line 2, for the same return, it is determined that there wasa $1,000 purchase within the prior 60 days along with a $100 statementcredit. Therefore, it is assumed that the $100 statement credit was arebate credit that must be debited. In line 3, a $400 return is made. Inthis case, a proportional $40 debit is made to correspond to the portionof the rebate credit on the $400 purchase that was returned. Additionalexamples and assumptions/rationales are provided in FIG. 11.

FIG. 12 provides additional examples of return policy logic in which aCM may be debited for identified rebate credit(s) on TM(TailorMade^(SM)) transactions. As shown in FIG. 12, if the CM isdebited for identified rebate credit(s), and if the CM disputes thecredit and claims that the return is part of a non-TM transaction (i.e.,a transaction in which the CM did not receive a rebate credit), then therebate credit is written off of CM's account. For example, in the line 1of FIG. 12, a return is made for $1000, and it assumed that the returnis associated the first exact transaction in the past 60 days for thatis the same amount as the return. In this example, transaction “6” isthe first transaction of $1000, and the return is associated withtransaction “6.” Since transaction “6” was discounted 10%, whereby theCM received a rebate credit of $100, then the CM is debited the $100. Ifthe CM disputes the debit, such as by claiming that the return is infact part of transaction “4,” then the debit is written off, sincetransaction “4” was not subject to a discount,

if in line 1 there is no exact matched transaction identified with thereturn, then, in line 2, the first transaction in the past 60 days whichis greater than the amount of the return is identified with the return.As shown in line 2, transaction “6” for $5000 is the first matchedtransaction having an amount greater than the return. Since transaction“6” was not discounted, then no action is taken with regard to debitingCM. If CM claims that the return is part of transaction “5” and “2”,then a debit from the CM's account is made in the amount of the rebatecredits (15% and 15%) for those transactions. If there is no transactionmatched in lines 1 or 2, then in line 3, if the sum of the return isequal or smaller than the sum of all transactions in the past 60 days,then it is assumed that the return refers to TM transactions up to$1000, and a debit to CM's account is provided in accordance with thediscounts on TM transactions 2 and 5.

FIGS. 9 and 10 show high level flow diagrams of a process fortransaction matching (via RCE 138) of registered GNS cards. As shown inFIG. 9, transactions deserving of discounts or discount reversals aswell as any service fees are provided to U.S. Submissions 482 which isplaced at global clearing and settlement 484, which is a repository forcollection by GNS issuers 486 for processing of credits and debits onGNS cards held by registered CMs (referred to as “GNS CMs”). Globalclearing and settlement 484 is also a repository for daily ROC data thatis submitted to RCE 138 for transaction matching. Although not shownhere, GNS issuers 486 provide TAP with information on GNS accounts heldby registered CMs to permit transaction matching, and also to permitenrollee database 134 to be updated according to cancellations 440 (asdescribed above with reference to FIG. 4). In an embodiment shown inFIG. 9, card authorization system 414 may involve a one dollarauthorization by which the CM's card is validated at enrollment. Asshown in FIGS. 9 and 10, U.S. submissions 482 receives discount,returns, and service fee information from RCE 138 that is used by GNSissuers 486 to settle with merchants and GNS CMs. U.S. submissions 482passes a two line message to GNS issuers 486, which appears on therespective issuer's credit statement. A similar two line message may beprovided on GNS CM's account statement, thereby providing transparencyof the settlement of transactions made pursuant to TAP's registered cardprogram to both GNS CMs and CMs holding cards issued by TAP, such as inthe manner described above with reference to FIG. 2,

III. EXAMPLE IMPLEMENTATIONS

The present invention or any part(s) or function(s) thereof may beimplemented using hardware, software or a combination thereof and may beimplemented in one or more computer systems or other processing systems.However, the manipulations performed by the present invention were oftenreferred to in terms, such as matching or selecting, which are commonlyassociated with mental operations performed by a human operator. No suchcapability of a human operator is necessary, or desirable in most cases,in any of the operations described herein which form part of the presentinvention. Rather, the operations may be machine operations. Usefulmachines for performing the operation of the present invention includegeneral purpose digital computers or similar devices.

In fact, in one embodiment, the invention is directed toward one or morecomputer systems capable of carrying out the functionality describedherein. An example of a computer system 1300 is shown in FIG. 13,

The computer system 1300 includes one or more processors, such asprocessor 1304. The processor 1304 is connected to a communicationinfrastructure 1306 (e.g., a communications bus, cross-over bar, ornetwork). Various software embodiments are described in terms of thisexemplary computer system. After reading this description, it willbecome apparent to a person skilled in the relevant art(s) how toimplement the invention using other computer systems and/orarchitectures,

Computer system 1300 can include a display interface 1302 that forwardsgraphics, text, and other data from the communication infrastructure1306 (or from a frame buffer not shown) for display on the display unit1330.

Computer system 1300 also includes a main memory 1308, preferably randomaccess memory (RAM), and may also include a secondary memory 1310. Thesecondary memory 1310 may include, for example, a hard disk drive 1312and/or a removable storage drive 1314, representing a floppy disk drive,a magnetic tape drive, an optical disk drive, etc. The removable storagedrive 1314 reads from and/or writes to a removable storage unit 1318 ina well known manner. Removable storage unit 1318 represents a floppydisk, magnetic tape, optical disk, etc., which is read by and written toby removable storage drive 1314. As will be appreciated, the removablestorage unit 1318 includes a computer usable storage medium havingstored therein computer software and/or data.

In alternative embodiments, secondary memory 1310 may include othersimilar devices for allowing computer programs or other instructions tobe loaded into computer system 1300. Such devices may include, forexample, a removable storage unit 1318 and an interface 1320. Examplesof such may include a program cartridge and cartridge interface (such asthat found in video game devices), a removable memory chip (such as anerasable programmable read only memory (EPROM), or programmable readonly memory (PROM)) and associated socket, and other removable storageunits 1318 and interfaces 1320, which allow software and data to betransferred from the removable storage unit 1318 to computer system1300.

Computer system 1300 may also include a communications interface 1324.Communications interface 1324 allows software and data to be transferredbetween computer system 1300 and external devices. Examples ofcommunications interface 1324 may include a modem, a network interface(such as an Ethernet card), a communications port, a Personal ComputerMemory Card International Association (PCMCIA) slot and card, etc.Software and data transferred via communications interface 1324 are inthe form of signals 1328 which may be electronic, electromagnetic,optical or other signals capable of being received by communicationsinterface 1324. These signals 1328 are provided to communicationsinterface 1324 via a communications path (e.g., channel) 1326. Thischannel 1326 carries signals 1328 and may be implemented using wire orcable, fiber optics, a telephone line, a cellular link, a radiofrequency (RF) link and other communications channels.

In this document, the terms “computer program medium” and “computerusable medium” are used to generally refer to media such as removablestorage drive 1314 and a hard disk installed in hard disk drive 1312.These computer program products provide software to computer system1300. The invention is directed to such computer program products.

Computer programs (also referred to as computer control logic) arestored in main memory 1308 and/or secondary memory 1310. Computerprograms may also be received via communications interface 1324. Suchcomputer programs, when executed, enable the computer system 1300 toperform the features of the present invention, as discussed herein. Inparticular, the computer programs, when executed, enable the processor1304 to perform the features of the present invention. Accordingly, suchcomputer programs represent controllers of the computer system 1300.

In an embodiment where the invention is implemented using software, thesoftware may be stored in a computer program product and loaded intocomputer system 1300 using removable storage drive 1314, hard drive 1312or communications interface 1324. The control logic (software), whenexecuted by the processor 1304, causes the processor 1304 to perform thefunctions of the invention as described herein.

In another embodiment, the invention is implemented primarily inhardware using, for example, hardware components such as applicationspecific integrated circuits (ASICs). Implementation of the hardwarestate machine so as to perform the functions described herein will beapparent to persons skilled in the relevant art(s).

In yet another embodiment, the invention is implemented using acombination of both hardware and software,

While various embodiments of the present invention have been describedabove, it should be understood that they have been presented by way ofexample, and not limitation. It will be apparent to persons skilled inthe relevant art(s) that various changes in form and detail can be madetherein without departing from the spirit and scope of the presentinvention. Thus, the present invention should not be limited by any ofthe above described exemplary embodiments, but should be defined only inaccordance with the following claims and their equivalents.

In addition, it should be understood that the figures and screen shotsillustrated in the attachments, which highlight the functionality andadvantages of the present invention, are presented for example purposesonly. The architecture of the present invention is sufficiently flexibleand configurable, such that it may he utilized (and navigated) in waysother than that shown in the accompanying figures.

1. A method comprising: providing, by a computer based system formanaging a rewards program, an offer to a user of a transaction account;receiving, by the computer based system, a user selection associatedwith the offer; associating, by the computer based system, the offerwith the transaction account in response to receiving the userselection; receiving, by the computer based system, transactioninformation, wherein the transaction information is associated with thetransaction account; determining, by the computer based system, that thetransaction information satisfies a predetermined criteria associatedwith the offer; and crediting, by the computer based system, the areward to the transaction account in response to the transactioninformation satisfying the predetermined criteria.
 2. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising receiving, by a computer based system,transaction account information.
 3. The method of claim 2, furthercomprising associating, by the computer based system, a transactionaccount with the rewards program in response to the receiving thetransaction account information.
 4. The method of claim 3, furthercomprising assigning, by the computer based system, a registrationidentifier to the transaction account in response to associating thetransaction account with the rewards program.
 5. The method of claim 1,wherein the offer is provided to the user via an electroniccommunication.
 6. The method of claim 1, the offer is coupon-less. 7.The method of claim 1, wherein an indicator of an amount of the rewardis shown on a statement in connection with the corresponding to thetransaction.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the reward is loyaltypoints.
 9. The method of claim 1, wherein the reward has a monetaryvalue.
 10. The method of claim 1, wherein the transaction informationrelates to at least one of authorization information, paymentinformation, settlement information, dispute information and acquirerinformation.
 11. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining,by the computer based system, an amount of the reward,
 12. The method ofclaim 11, further comprising determining, by the computer based system,a debit and a credit associated with the reward.
 13. The method of claim12, further comprising applying, by the computer based system, the debitto a merchant account associated with the transaction.
 14. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the reward has a cost and wherein the cost isassociated with a sponsoring merchant.
 15. The method of claim 1,wherein the transaction information is a record of charge.
 16. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising: providing, by the computer basedsystem, a return credit to the transaction account of the user inresponse to a return; and determining, by the computer based system,that the return relates to a transaction information for which a rebatecredit was provided, wherein in response to the return relating totransaction information for which a reward was provided, debiting thetransaction account of the user by at least a portion of the reward. 17.The method of claim 16, wherein the determining step comprises:searching, by the computer based system, for the transaction informationfor transaction made by the user with a merchant, wherein thetransaction information includes a transaction date occurring within agiven time period prior to a date of the return; and in response to thetransaction information being found, identifying that a reward wasprovided in relation to the purchase.
 18. The method of claim 1, whereinthe reward is at least one of a discount and a rebate.
 19. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the computer based system is operated by at least oneof a transaction account issuer, a loyalty program provider, and anacquirer,
 20. A tangible computer-readable storage medium havingcomputer-executable instructions stored thereon that, if executed by acomputer based system for managing a rewards program, causes thecomputer based system to perform a method comprising: providing, by thecomputer based system, an offer to a user of a transaction account;receiving, by the computer based system, a user selection associatedwith the offer; associating, by the computer based system, the offerwith the transaction account in response to receiving the userselection; receiving, by the computer based system, transactioninformation, wherein the transaction information is associated with thetransaction account; determining, by the computer based system, that thetransaction information satisfies a predetermined criteria associatedwith the offer; and crediting, by the computer based system, the areward to the transaction account in response to the transactioninformation satisfying the predetermined criteria.
 21. A systemcomprising: a network interface communicating with a memory; the memorycommunicating with a processor for managing a rewards program; and theprocessor, when executing a computer program, is configured to:providing, by the processor, an offer to a user of a transactionaccount; receiving, by the processor, a user selection associated withthe offer; associating, by the processor, the offer with the transactionaccount in response to receiving the user selection; receiving, by theprocessor, transaction information, wherein the transaction informationis associated with the transaction account; determining, by theprocessor, that the transaction information satisfies a predeterminedcriteria associated with the offer; and crediting, by the processor, thea reward to the transaction account in response to the transactioninformation satisfying the predetermined criteria.